The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 186, 5 March 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1868.

Oke thousand ounces of gold at one find! This is the latest news from Queensland, and of itself is quite sufficient to turn the head of half the waverers, and to shake the stability of those miners who are located in New Zealand. We publish in this morning's issue all the information that we can gather on the subject, and ask miners to judge for themselves, and without being precipitate to ask themselves whether the probabilities of success are such as to induce them to leave the temperate climate of New Zealand for the tropical one of Queensland, and to any person who has not experienced the effects of the Queensland climate, we would bid them pause. It may be said that the country is new, but from all accounts the auriferous district is very limited in extent, and that thousands of people are wandering about, not only starving, but almost maddened with the intense heat of the country. Erom the Bochhampton Bulletin, a most reliable authority published at the port of Kockhampton, we find that the weather is very hot and oppressive, and deaths from sunstroke and exhaustion were of frequent occurrence, and it then proceeds to give an account in one publication of the death of eight persons that had come under its notice. But it will no doubt be argued, that after being inured to the New Zealand climate, a man would be able to stand anything, and that the hot weather would not be more oppressive or trying to the system than the wet and cold of Addison's Plat. But this is a mistake, and miners will find it out to their cost in a very short time, and G-ympie's Creek will prove the burialground of many a stalwart miner who has braved the wet and cold of New Zealand, and would have done so for many years to come. "We have before alluded to the Canoona and Fitzroy rushes, and the misery and disappointment attendant thereupon, and therefore it is needless to dwell upon this subject, as it would be merely a reiteration of what we have already stated; and besides the great fact of a nugget weighing 1000 ounces will go very far to overturn any argument that might be used regarding the effects of the climate on the system, or the general character of Queensland rushes. It is well known to practical miners that any district yielding such heavy nuggets is extremely patchy, and that the nuggets are discovered more by accident than anything

else. The richest diggings for heavy nuggets yet known was undoubtedly Kiugower, in Victoria, and with the exception of the few lucky finders, nobody earned scarcely tucker, and yet we suppose more gold was taken from Kiugower than any other of the cvanesceut diggings of Victoria. As usual with all the heavy "finds " the nugget alluded to was discovered by accident—the finder even thinking of abandoning the claim as it was not remunerative. The Maryborough Chronicle is moderately jubilant over the discovery, and surmises that it would not be at all improbable if a large amount of gold was not found in the locality. A stampede seems to have set in towards the locality not only from Hokitika and Greymouth, but also from Queensland itself, where we learn that the gold fever was at its height—shepherds were leaving their stations, storekeepers their stores, aud servants their employers. It is the old tale over again, and it will meet with a like result, misery, disappointment, and vain regret when too late to be repented of. "We have advised miners not to be too precipitate in leaving a tolerable certainty for an absolute uncertainty, as there are no accounts of any other discoveries having been made with the exception of the diggings at G-ympie Creek, while the population at present on the Queensland goldfields is enormously in excess of its producing powers, let the ground be richer than anything yet discovered.